THE FINAL FRONTIER STORIES OF EXPLORING SPACE, COLONIZING THE UNIVERSE, AND FIRST CONTACT Edited by Neil Clarke For Johnny INTRODUCTION I consider this anthology to be a sister to Galactic Empires, which was published last year. During the preliminary reading for that project, I came across several great stories that werent quite right for the anthology, typically because the empire element was non-existent or too thin. As that list continued to grow, a theme began to develop around them: space ...

George R. R. Martin, Melinda M. Snodgrass,Michael Cassutt,David Anthony Durham,Mary Anne Mohanraj,David D. Levine,Walter Jon Williams,Carrie Vaughn,Ian Tregillis Lowball The Big Bleed by Michael Cassutt Part One Prologue Since he was eleven, when the terrible thing happened, he had been called Chahina instead of Hasan. Chahina was a most unusual name for a Berber boy, but fitting, translating loosely as Wheels or Transport. At the age of eleven, Hasan had been brutally transformed into a joker ...

Inside Straight To Kay McCauley, ace agent, who always deals us winning hands Daniel Abraham Jonathan Hive 1: Who the fuck was Jetboy Posted Today 1:04 am HISTORY, JETBOY REFLECTIVE THESE ARE THE FABLES THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Who the fuck was Jetboy My grandfather tried to tell me when I was too young. I didnt get it. A flying ace, he said, from before there was the wild card. I could never get my head around that. How could you have any acemuch less one who flewbefore there was the wild card ...

Dreams of the Golden Age Golden Age - 2 by Carrie Vaughn To George, Melinda, and the Wild Cards Consortium, for showing that superheroes can live in prose and then making me stay up way too late reading about them ONE CELIA West sat alone in her office, a corner suite in the family penthouse at West Plaza. She kept her wide, preternaturally slick desk neat, the few files stacked in a corner, pens lined up, computer screen conveniently placed, laptop dock accessible. Everything else was put away ...

Hex Appeal An anthology of stories edited by P N Elrod RETRIBUTION CLAUSE by ILONA ANDREWS Adam Talford closed his eyes and wished he were somewhere else. Somewhere warm. Where cool waves lapped hot yellow sand, where strange flowers bloomed, and birdsong filled the air. Take off the watch Now a male voice barked into his ear. You think I am fucking with you You think I am playing Ill rip your flesh off your body and make myself a skin suit. Adam opened his eyes. The three thugs who pinned him ...

Kitty Rocks the House Book 11 in the Kitty Norville series A novel by Carrie Vaughn For Emery Anne Vaughn The Playlist Sister Sledge, We Are Family Jefferson Airplane, My Best Friend Buddy Holly, Youre So Square Baby, I Dont Care Fanny, Youre the One The Ditty Bops, Walk or Ride They Might Be Giants, Older The Cure, A Strange Day Creedence Clearwater Revival, I Put a Spell on You Rasputina, You Dont Own Me Erasure, Hideaway Pentangle, The Time Has Come La Santa Cecilia, La Negra Chapter 1 FOR ...

OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE Stories of Parallel Worlds edited by John Joseph Adams Go then, there are other worlds than these. Jake Chambers, to Roland Deschain of Gilead from The Gunslinger by Stephen King FOREWORD LEV GROSSMAN When I read The Chronicles of Narnia as a child, it didnt so much introduce me to the idea that there was another world as confirm my already grave suspicions on the subject. Even at the tender age of eight I wasas I suspect you were, and are, if youre reading this bookone ...

SONGS OF LOVE DEATH All-Original Tales of Star-сrossed Love Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois For everyone weve loved and lost you know who you are. STAR-CROSSED LOVERS The earliest reference we can find for the phrase star-crossed lovers traces it to 1595, attributing it to Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy about the doomed romance that blossoms between a young man and a young woman on the brawling streets of Verona, a romance that is destined to fail because the families ...

After the Golden Age A novel by Carrie Vaughn To Max, who introduced me to the Silver and Golden Ages, and who always shares his comics ONE CELIA took the late bus home, riding along with other young workaholic professionals, the odd student, and late-shift retail clerks. A quiet, working bunch, cogs and wheels that kept Commerce City running. Only a block away from the office, the person in the seat behind her leaned forward and spoke in her ear: Get off at the next stop. She hadnt noticed him ...

Kitty Steals the Show The tenth book in the Kitty Norville series A novel by Carrie Vaughn Acknowledgments Thanks on this one go to Mom, Dad, Daniel, Derek, Yann, Elaine, Emily, Trevor, Damian, Zeke, Max, Yaz, Jeanne-Marie, Jim, Ty, Jayn, David, Stacy, Cassie, Ashley, Carolyn, and Lora. Thats not everyone who deserves thanks, Im sure. But their help was especially useful during the time I was writing this particular book. So, thanks. The Playlist a-Ha, Take On Me Murray Head, One Night in ...

LIGHTSPEED Year One Edited by John Joseph Adams Cover art by Vitaly Alexius Samarin For the Lightspeed Team, without whom none of this would have been possible. INTRODUCTION by John Joseph Adams Welcome to Lightspeed: Year One For those of you not already familiar with Lightspeed, some background may be in order: Lightspeed is an online magazine www.lightspeedmagazine.com that focuses exclusively on science fiction. Within its pages or pixels, as it were, you will find all types of science ...

BRAVE NEW WORLDS DYSTOPIAN STORIES For Christie Introduction by JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451, and, of course, the book this anthology is named forBrave New Worldare the cornerstones of dystopian literature in novel form, but there has never, to my knowledge, been an anthology collecting all the best, classic works of dystopian short fiction in one volume. This book aims to do exactly that, spanning from 1948 to the present day, from what is perhaps The classic dystopian ...

Those Who Fight Monsters Tales of Occult Detectives Edited by Justin Gustainis From ghoulies, and ghosties, and long-leggedity beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us. Old Scottish prayer There are things that go bump in the night And we are the ones who bump back. Professor Trevor Bruttenholm Introduction: Down These Mean Crypts a WoMan Must Walk by Justin Gustainis As the subtitle tells you, this book is devoted to stories of occult detectives, a term that I ...

Down These Strange Streets An anthology of stories edited by Gardner Dozois and George R R Martin To our friend Jack Dann, who has walked down some pretty strange streets himself THE BASTARD STEPCHILD Theres a new kid on the shelves in bookstores these days. Most often he can be found back in the science fiction and fantasy section, walking with a certain swagger among the epic fantasies, the space operas, the sword-and-sorcery yarns and cyberpunk dystopias. Sometimes he wanders up front, to ...

Running With the Pack An anthology of stories edited by Ekaterina Sedia To all sheep in wolfs clothing... INTRODUCTION Theres a view of werewolves espoused even on the back cover of this volume as an expression of the animal and the dark in the usually suppressed and mild-mannered civilized person we like to think of ourselves as beasts, our wild instincts kept in check only by a thin veneer of social necessity. This fantasy is a persistent and appealing one: a jacketed executive by day, but the ...